And ellery b



Toall persons to whom these presents may come than sans gaat entre.

ROBERT RCRANE, CE RELoirwiSCoNsi-N, AND ELLERY CRANE,

* or WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters .Patent No. 90,821, dated .Tune 1, 1869-..

AUTOMATIC RAYILWAY-GATE.

Be it known that we, BOBERT'P. CRANE, of Beloit, Rock county, and Stateof Wisconsin, and ELLERY B. CRANE, ofthe city and county of`Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have-.invented a new and improved Mechanism for Automatically Operating the Gate of a Railway-Crossing; and do hereby declare p the same to be fully described in the following specitication, and represented -in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l is a top view of it.

Figure 2 is an elevatiomof the gate, its frame, and the mechanism directly appertaiuing thereto. v

A denotes a gate, suspended upon a horizontal rail, a, aiiixed to the upper girt, b, of a frame, B.

The said frame extends across a railway-track, (l, at the crossing of such with a road, and is for closing the railway against ,the entrance upon it of animals from the roadway, or it may be used also to project across the'roadway, for the purpose ot arresting theV passage of persons or .vehicles across the railway-track just previous to the passage of a train, of cars across the roadway. In either case the gate would be operatedl by the train.

The gate has wheels, c c, to rest on the railr/a.

A rod, D, is pivoted, at one end, to the front bar At its other end, the rod D is pivoted to one end of a lever, E, which', at its middle, is fastened to one extremity of a horizontal shaft, F.

On the said shaft a pinion, e, is -secured.

The pinion engages with a gear, f, which revolves freely on an arbor, g, and is arranged by the side of a ratchet, h, fixed to the said arbor.

` s pressed in Contact A pawl, t, carried by the gear, 1

with the toothed periphery of the ratchet, by a sprin g, It.

A spiral spring, l, is coiled around the arbor, and has its inner end fastened to the arbor, the outer end of the said spring being hooked upon, or affixed to a stationary rod, or bar, m.

This bar is supported by two check-pieces, or plates, n 1t, fastened to the opposite edges of two' upright posts, o p, the' whole being as represented in the drawi Below the saidlevercatch there is another, or guardlever catch, I, which, formed in manner as shown,aud vsupported on a pivot, u, is connected with the first lever-catch, by a rod, v, which is pivoted to the two catches, the whole being as represented.

From the upper arm of the triarmed lever G, a wire, w, extends down to the wrist of one of two cranks, a: ze, which are connected by a wire, y.

These cranks project parallel to cach other, and upward from two horizontal shafts, z` z, disposed at right angles with the railway, and suitably supported. p

Alongside of one of the rails of the track is a short and narrow rail, K, which may be termed the tripper, it being, at its opposite' ends, jointed to two other inclined rails, L L, which, at their outer extremities, are pivoted to the track-rail.

Figure 4 is a side view of the track-rail, with the trpper and its inclined rails, and the arms by which the tripper. s-connected with the two shaits z z.

From these shafts the said arms project parallel to each other, and are pivoted to the tripper.

`The outer or inclined rails areto guide a car-wheel up to and olf the upper edge ofthe tripper.

The tripper is to be arranged at a suitable distance from the road-crossing, or the gate, to enable a train of cars, while passing over the tripper, to eiect the opening of the gatebeforc the said train may reach the crossing. v

There is to be on the opposite side of the gate, and `at a like distance therefrom, another tripper and set of cranked shafts, connected by yanotherwire, with an` auxiliary triarmed lever, G', which, arranged as represented, is to be connected with the lever Gr, by crossed rods, or wires, a b', disposed asshown in figs. l and 3.

A spring, c', fastened to one of the cranks :c x, and to a post, d', serves to eiiect the return of the tripper to its normal position after a train may have crossed it.

Now, if we suppose a key to be applied to the arbor g, and such arbor to be revolved thereby, so as to wind up the spiral spring, we shall find, that Vwhile the spring is so wpund up, one of the arms of the lever E will be forced 'up against the lever-catch H, which will serve to hold the gate in its assumed position, whether it be either closed, or across the track, or open.

Suppose the gate to be closed, or, in other words, across the track, and a train is approaching the gate, the tirst'carriage-wheel which rolls upon the trippcr will depress it, and, as a consequence, the hook ofthe catch H wllhe withdrawn from over the arm of the lever E. The lever will thus be set, free, and at once will be revolved through a half circle,by the power of the coiled spring. In the mean time, the catch H will have been discharged from the' stud of the hanger or lifter, and will have fallen back to its normal position, and, by extending into the path of Vrevolution ofthe lever E, will arrest the said lever when it may have completed a semi-revolution. This movement of the levr will canse the gaie to be retracted, or drawn open, and held open while the train may be passing the road-crossing; When, however, the train may move upon theauxiliary tripper, like results will follow, except that the gate will be closed, or moved across the Track.

While the tripper is being raised, the hanger will be moved down into engagement with the catch H.

Should, however, the catch H, by any accidental cause, not advance quick enough to stop the lever, the latter will be caught and arrested 4by the auxiliary 4or guard-catch I, which, While the catch His retracted,

is simultaneously advanced, and will also be in the act of being retracted While the catch H is being advanced.

Thus any danger of the gate being prematurely closed will be prevented by the action ofthe guard-catch I.

' What we'claim as our invention in the gate-operexplained.

ROBERT P. CRANE. ELLERY B. CRANE.

Witnesses: v

R. H. EDDY, SAMUEL N. PIPER.

ating mechanism above described, may be stated as` 

